By Matevž Tomšič
It is by no means a coincidence that the “internationalisation” of Slovenia’s internal divisions, which we are witnessing, began to escalate just after the debacle of the parliamentary left with its so-called constructive no confidence vote that infamously failed in parliament last month. It reached its “finale” with the never to be Prime Minister Karl Erjavec resigned from the position of president of the DeSUS party and, as it seems, this time finally said goodbye to Slovenian politics.
It is obvious that the leftists gathered in so-called KUL coalition, gave up that they would be able to gather a sufficient majority in parliament to overthrow the current Government. There is also not much talk about the interpellations of the Ministers, which were serially filed at the beginning of the year. They will most likely not be able to prevent Slovenia’s presidency of the European Union under the leadership of Janez Janša, although this is their great wish.
Therefore, they intended to discredit the Government in front of the European public, and bring down its reputation in the eyes of European political decision-makers. For this purpose, they used the network of contacts they have mainly in the ranks of their political allies and in international journalistic circles. They were ready to come to their aid. In this way, they managed to put Slovenia on a “pillory” in the European Parliament due to alleged pressure on the media. In this, it is downright perverse for Slovenian left-wing politicians like Tanja Fajon to express concern about how our country has found itself in such a situation, as they – along with their media, academic, and civil society aides – were the one to put Slovenia in it with their lies and manipulations.
In essence, there is a replay of the events before Slovenia’s first European presidency, which was placed in the mandate of the first Government of Janša. Even then, messages were sent abroad about what horrid things the government was doing, especially in the media field – let’s remember the infamous petition of 571 journalists. However, at that time, such “export” of accusations on the European floor did not fall on fertile ground.
Leftist alliance
However, the situation in the European Union has changed considerably since then. Political polarisation between individual countries and regions, as well as between different political groups, has intensified sharply. This is on the one hand linked to a series of crises, from financial to migrant and the current epidemic (COVID-19), that occurred during this period. But it is also the result of the rise of neo-leftist ideologies, such as multiculturalism, radical feminism, LGBTism, which have a much greater impact today than they did a decade ago.
As a result, there has been a split between the majority of “old” EU members and some “new” ones, notably Poland and Hungary. These two drew the wrath of the leading European countries and global(list) organisations mainly by resolutely opposing the policy of open borders as well as other ideas of the modern left. Therefore, they have been the subject of processing by the European institutions for a long time, with constant monitoring by the dominant media. As a result, they became susceptible to the constant roar of Slovenian leftists about how Janša is bringing Slovenia closer to these two countries.
The active engagement of European left-liberal circles in the pursuit of the current Slovene Government can to some extent be understood as an expression of support for their Slovene political allies. In this sense, it is a completely pragmatic approach, as it is in the interest of every political group to be in power in as many countries as possible. However, there is also a concrete fear “at work” of strengthening the defensive front against proliferation or – rather – the imposition of their ideological solutions. Namely, this front could find sympathisers in core European countries as well.
Matevž Tomšič is a sociologist, professor at the Faculty of Applied Social Studies, and President of the Association of Journalists and Publicists.